NY heroin scourge spills into Pike County

In this city of less than 9,000 people just over the Pike County line, more than two dozen people have died of drug overdoses in 2010 and 2011, the majority of them heroin-related.

JAMES NANI

PORT JERVIS, N.Y. — In this city of less than 9,000 people just over the Pike County line, more than two dozen people have died of drug overdoses in 2010 and 2011, the majority of them heroin-related.

In 2011 alone, cops responded to 47 overdose-related medical calls that didn't result in death.

"Heroin seems to be the illicit drug of choice," said Alice Smith of Restorative Management, a drug treatment center in Port Jervis.

The reason for the increase, say law enforcement officials, local drug abuse specialists and community activists, are a confluence of factors including the old city's tri-state borders, its lack of job opportunities and the overall increase in prescription opiate abuse that can lead down the road to heroin.

Heroin use in Port isn't necessarily new, having peaked from 1998 to 1999, said Port Jervis Police Chief William Worden, a native of the city whose father was mayor for about 10 years.

But it's now climbing back in a new and big way, he said.

Many of those heroin users live right across the border, in Pike County, making it a ready market for an area that geographically is more a part of Port Jervis than most of Orange County, N.Y..

Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin agreed that heroin use has been on the rise in the last 18 months.

His office has targeted dealers through the Pike County Drug Task Force.

"We've seen an increase and we're hard at work to combat that," said Tonkin.

Heroin has also gotten cheaper and more potent, said Pike County Sheriff Philip Bueki, so users can snort it instead of injecting it. That possibility takes away the needle stigma often associated with the drug.

"The purity has gone off the charts," he said.

Port Jervis, like many cities, has features that make it a magnet for illicit drug abuse and sale — a bad economy, high unemployment, easy access to major roads like Interstate 84 and Route 209, and its location at the nexus of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, said the Rev. Robin Martineau, of Wickham Methodist Church, a recovering drug user who's spearheading efforts to combat drug use.

The fact that it's also the last stop on the end of the Port Jervis commuter train line to Hoboken makes the tiny city an easy transfer station for drugs to come from out of state, said Martineau. With drugs coming in from Newark and Paterson along with the lure of quick cash from drug sales, dealing can be an attractive money-maker.

"I know people who have come to me and said 'It would be so easy to go to Paterson, get a pack, and make Christmas nice,'" said Martineau.

The increase in heroin use also seems to be linked with the increased use of opiate-based painkillers, said Orange County Senior Assistant District Attorney Lorri Goldberg.

"It seems to start with pills and then they move on to heroin, which is cheaper," said Goldberg. "When you hear their stories, you learn they start with prescription medication — Oxycotin, Percoset. Sometimes it's $60 a pill on the street. A baggie or deck is $10 to $20."

The classic profile of a heroin user has also changed, said Goldberg. With prescription opiate painkillers fueling use, an injury from a car accident can sometimes lead down the path to harder drugs, said Goldberg.

"It isn't just all people who have dropped out of high school. It's people in college. I've seen the nicest people ... nurses, doctors, teachers," said Goldberg.

But with the rise in heroin has come efforts to combat it. While the city has conditions that make heroin abuse a problem — it's sliced with that rail line, and bordered by an interstate highway and two major rivers — its role as the smallest city in the county gives the tight-knit community the personality of a village.

And that gives it an edge to combat the problem. "Port pride" is a mantra of the city.

Martineau, who has been in recovery for more than 30 years himself, is now spearheading the Port Jervis Drug Task Force, a group of about 25 community members trying to combat heroin and painkiller abuse.

The task force, still in its infancy, is meant to help funnel contacts and efforts to combat abuse on multiple fronts, Martineau said.

The task force was born after Police Chief Worden reached out in May to the community at a public forum called "Battling The Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Epidemic." He compiled the number of overdose deaths himself after reviewing death certificates and police records.

Worden said getting the community involved is part of an overall effort to beat back the rising tide of heroin in the area.